tal service being rendered by your Community to not
only the peoples of that part of the world, but to the Faith as a
world-wide movement. He has begun to receive lately some of your
publications, and trusts, now the mails are again running, to receive
safely all the material you are sending.

Arcade of the Shrine of the Bab

The Foundation of the arcade of the Shrine has now been laid and all the
heavy threshold stones placed in position. More than half of the stone
work ordered in Italy for this first unit of the beautiful shell, which
will enclose and protect for all-time the sacred building built by the
beloved Master Himself, has now been received on the Shrine property, and
plans are being made for the next stage of construction to go ahead.

This glorious work, so cheering to all our hearts, is, however, greatly
increasing the burden our beloved Guardian bears, and he hopes the friends
will understand this when they find letters to him can no longer be
answered promptly. At such a time, when this country has passed through so
much danger and difficulty, it is little short of miraculous the way this
work on the Shrine has been facilitated and protected and gone ahead
steadily! It is greatly enhancing the prestige of the Faith here, and the
authorities have been cooperative and helpful.

Grave Challenge

[From the Guardian:]

The communications addressed to me several months ago by your Assembly
have, after considerable delay in transmission, reached the Holy Land,
and, together with the reports and minutes accompanying them, were read
with deep and sustained interest.

The tremendous task facing the Baha'i Communities in India, Pakistan and
Burma, constitutes a grave challenge to the followers of the Faith of
Baha'u'llah in these countries and must be faced and met with courage,
determination and a spirit of complete dedication to His Cause. The
disturbances that have so gravely shaken the peoples of these countries,
on the morrow of a world-convulsing international conflict; the
unfortunate and sudden cessation of communications between these countries
and the World Centre of the Faith in the Holy Land during the past year;
the fears and anxieties engendered by a steadily deteriorating
international situation which cannot but dismay the stoutest hearts, have
no doubt contributed, in varying degrees, and in no small measure, to a
slowing down of the progress of the collective enterprise, so